Chesterfield
Notional 2005 Results:
Liberal Democrat: 21035 (46.6%)
Labour: 18462 (40.9%)
Conservative: 3784 (8.4%)
Other: 1838 (4.1%)
Majority: 2573 (5.7%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 3605 (8.2%)
Labour: 17830 (40.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 20875 (47.3%)
UKIP: 997 (2.3%)
Other: 814 (1.8%)
Majority: 3045 (6.9%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 3613 (8.1%)
Labour: 18663 (42%)
Liberal Democrat: 21249 (47.8%)
Other: 916 (2.1%)
Majority: 2586 (5.8%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 4752 (9.2%)
Labour: 26105 (50.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 20330 (39.6%)
Other: 202 (0.4%)
Majority: 5775 (11.2%)
Boundary changes:
Profile:
Outgoing MP: Paul Holmes(Liberal Democrat) born 1957. Educated at Firth park Secondary and York University. Former teacher. Chesterfield councillor 1987-1995, 1999-2003. MP for Chesterfield since 2001. Work and pensions spokesman 2002-2005, chair of Lib Dem Parliamentary party 2005-2006, arts of culture spokesman 2006-2007, housing spokesman until December 2007 (more information at They work for you)
Candidates: 
Carolyn Abbott (Conservative) Contested Sheffield Heeley 2001, Barnsley East and Mexborough 2005.
Toby Perkins (Labour) born 1970. Educated at Silverdale Comprehensive School. Former sales rep and recruitment manager. A qualified rugby coach, he now runs a rugby merchandising and equipment company. Chesterfield councillor.Paul Holmes(Liberal Democrat) born 1957. Educated at Firth park Secondary and York University. Former teacher. Chesterfield councillor 1987-1995, 1999-2003. MP for Chesterfield since 2001. Work and pensions spokesman 2002-2005, chair of Lib Dem Parliamentary party 2005-2006, arts of culture spokesman 2006-2007, housing spokesman until December 2007 (more information at They work for you)David Phillips (UKIP)Ian Jerram (English Democrat)
2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 88747
Male: 48.8%
Female: 51.2%
Under 18: 21.4%
Over 60: 22.9%
Born outside UK: 2.6%
White: 98.1%
Black: 0.4%
Asian: 0.6%
Mixed: 0.7%
Other: 0.3%
Christian: 77.9%
Full time students: 2.1%
Graduates 16-74: 14.7%
No Qualifications 16-74: 34.2%
Owner-Occupied: 66.6%
Social Housing: 25.9% (Council: 23.1%, Housing Ass.: 2.9%)
Privately Rented: 5.5%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 4.2%
Toby – isn’t that just responding to local needs?
My belief is that in politics, you have to actually stand for something, David. Of course I accept that a politician’s going to talk more about tax credits to a young family and more about winter fuel allowance to a pensioner, that makes sense.
But when you are for expanding government spending on the Council estates and cutting taxes and public services in the ‘Tory areas’, I think that moves from being ‘responsive’ to being dishonest, don’t you?
Kieran (as a Tory), believes Mr Holmes to be strongly left wing. I understand that at a recent business forum that he attended with Natascha Engel and the Tory PPC from Bolsover, Mr Holmes instead attempted to display very diferent values, described by one attendee as ‘attempting to out Tory the Tory’.
I think Paul Holmes’ record as being very much on the left of his party speaks for itself. There is his membership of the centre-left Beveridge group; set up originally to resist moves towards greater economic liberalism in the party’s policy platform (I am not actually sure if the group is still fully functioning; it’s website does not seem to have been updated for some time). He voted at his party’s conference against proposals to privatise the post office, and against capping the UK’s contribution to the EU budget. There are also his views on Cuba to consider.
True, this doesn’t exactly make him Dennis Skinner or Jeremy Corbyn, but then neither does it make him the sort of guy that anyone generally supportive of Conservative policies and values should deem worthy of their support.
Were the Lib Dems to cease to exist tomorrow, Paul Holmes could fit seamlessly into the Labour Party. In the event of a hung parliament (realistically the only situation in which a Lib Dem MP is likely have any real influence over national policy), I would expect him to act in a manner entirely consistent with someone who fits that description.
It is predictable that given the type of audience to which he was playing at the business forum mentioned by Toby, Mr Holmes should seek to present a slightly less centre left image to that he has projected at various times in recent years. It could perhaps be seen as a more general indication that Chesterfield Liberal Democrats feel they are going to have to watch their right flank in election campaigns here over the next year or so, in a way that they have not really thought to be necessary for some time.
The LDs – where they have a policy – are to the left of Labour, and generally follow an oppositionist/demand more £ line.
One of the things I particularly dislike about them is they wish to abolish the Department of Business/formerly Trade and Industry.
I strongly supported getting industry to stand on it’s own feet from 1979 onwards, but there are important things a Senior Cabinet Minister should do to bang the drum for pro business policies, particularly when almost every other department is a spending department.
Kieran I think you are wrong in seeing the Labour party as a broad church with a functional left wing that Holmes could seamlessly fit into. Admittedly there are a few hibernating old Labour type dinosaurs like Skinner waiting their moment to reclaim the soul of their party from their New Labour rulers. We know locally, Brown knows, Perkins is a New Labour loyalist. Perkins reproduces his masters voice faithfully or at least when he has done his homework. My mate In Ducky saw Perkins on walkies with his team and asked Perkins for his policies on both law and order and on schools. Perkins replied that it was complicated but he would find out and get back to him !!! Holmes looks a bit of a lefty because both New Labour and Conservatives are centre right. Holmes is probably only centre left because he is a Beveridge man who supports council house building and the welfare state, opposes post office privatisation but does not oppose PPE or private industry involvement.
Spire Boy, it’s good to see another Chesterfield native commenting on this thread.
I have to say I haven’t really given much thought to the differences in respective political outlook between Paul Holmes and Toby Perkins. It may be the case as you say that Toby is such a devotee of New Labour that Paul Homes is to the left of him. The very fact that there is clearly some room for discussion surrounding this issue to me highlights the fact that for someone outside the centre left there is very little to choose between them.
What matters to me is that both are nowhere near being Conservatives; indeed I wouldn’t be surprised if both of them considered that description to be something of a compliment. Consequently I think there is nothing to be gained for someone living in Chesterfield who likes what the Conservative Party has to say in voting “tactically” for anyone other than the a Conservative candidate.
In today’s Observer Andrew Rawnsley describes the Lib Dems as being “a party instinctively on the centre-left”. I think that is broadly a fair assessment, and that Joe is right in his above post that both Labour and the Lib Dems are basically of the belief that problems are most likely to be solved by government via some combination of tax, borrow and spend. As such the Conservative Party does offer a distinctive outlook, and it is one that has sadly had no one presenting it on Chesterfield Borough Council for many years. Hopefully that will change next year, as I believe (I suppose I would say this really) that Conservative representation on the council would greatly help it to become a better run authority.
The UKIP candidate, David Phillips, is chairman of their High Peak Association and contested Glossop South in last year’s Derbyshire county elections, beating the Lib Dem candidate into fourth place.
I understand UKIP are having trouble finding candidates for the majority of Derbyshire seats, presumably the reason why they have had to bring someone over from High peak to contest Chesterfield. In their private battle for fourth place here I would say Ian Jerram’s local connections and the fact that he stood here last time will give him the edge over Mr Phillips.
“My mate In Ducky saw Perkins on walkies with his team and asked Perkins for his policies on both law and order and on schools. Perkins replied that it was complicated but he would find out and get back to him !!! ”
A clumsy attempt Spire Boy, think you’re going to have to be a little more imaginative if you want to sound plausible.
I dont know who your friend in Ducky is but I have never said to anyone that I would find out our policy on law and order and get back to them, and frankly it is insulting to people’s intelligence on here to suggest I would.
Where Paul Holmes stands on policy depends on where he is sitting, centre right in Walton, centre left in Staveley.